Trillium Artisans Holiday Sale - November 15

Save the date!

Trillium Artisans Holiday Sale and Open House
Saturday, November 15, 2008
9119 SE Foster Road, Portland, OR 97266
503.775.7993
Our website: www.trilliumartisans.org
Our Etsy shop: http://trilliumartisans.etsy.com

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe

There is no drug quite like the drug of playing in a rock and roll band, especially when one gets the privilege of "hogassing" the spotlight, as I do every year on the occasion of our Halloween show, when I perform a recitation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. Last night at the Jolly Inn I had the true Janis Joplin moment of my life, when The Raven was performed with full backing rock band and doo-wop girls. It was a big hit!
I first memorized The Raven when I was in eighth grade. My English teacher challenged me to memorize it, so I did, and recited it for our class. Melodie Beirwagen was in that class too. Here she is now with our best friend Suzie Q:
It was Suzie who started the Halloween tradition - when she heard that I had the poem memorized she demanded that I recite it at the Halloween parties. It has since evolved into quite a performance piece and I love the chance to share it with the world once a year.

Here's me and my partner in crime:

The Vignettes:
The she-devils of Cootie Platoon were looking especially sexy:


Advisory played, and apparently got kicked out of the bar shortly afterward.



Dartgun rocked!

But that's not all - we have another show coming up on Halloween night - that's Friday, October 31 at Hungry Tiger Too (207 SE 12th in Portland), with Pitchfork Motorway and 48 Thrills. See you there!

Dartgun's Halloween Party

Hey Portland! Looking for a Halloween party? Join us at the Jolly Inn (1937 SE 11th) on Saturday, October 25. That's Dartgun (and the Vignettes) with The Bloodies, Advisory, and Cootie Platoon! It's a costume party with other special scary surprises. Show up, okay? See ya there. It's FREE!!!

The Green Room

Yikes! My room has been taken over by green disks!


Okay, that's 50 of each color (green and cream) with the backgrounds done. Today I will begin painting the designs!

Special order for Grasshopper 510

I finished the ten special-ordered Mandala Record Bowls for Grasshopper 510 in Chicago ("eco-conscious without a hint of hippie," according to the October issue of Lucky). I'll be shipping them tomorrow. I sent pictures to Jean, the owner, and she loves them, so I am very happy.

She asked for some designs along the lines of the pieces I am doing for Viva Terra, only in a variety of fall colors. Each piece is a solid color with a simplified ivory-colored design, or the same pattern with the colors in reverse.

I think this black one with the orange in it makes a great image for October:





Next time you're in Chicago, be sure to check out Grasshopper 510, located at 1944 N. Damen Ave., just south of Armitage Ave.

100 records ready to go

I'm pleased to announce that I now have 100+ records primed, prepped, and ready to paint for my big order. It took me one week to get to this point. Now it is time to start painting them!

Virtual Trunk Show with the Trashion Team

Rave review from the Green Diva

My Mandala Bowls got a rave review today from the Green Diva! Check out the post, "Green Diva's Guide to Fresh Style: Recycled Rod Stewart?" on the blog Feelgood Style from Green Options Media.

Apparently this blogger picked up my Raspberry Bowl from the BuyGreen website, and she loves it! She says, "This is recycled music at its best...Could make a nice, colorful, interesting and green holiday gift."

It's time to prime, prime, prime my records

As I dorkily sang in my "That's Clever!" episode on HGTV, "It's time to prime, prime, prime my records!" (My kids will never let me live that down.)

I have been spending every spare minute prepping records for my big catalog order (100 Mandala Record Bowls) for Viva Terra.

Chuck helped me set up a priming station under my canopy in the backyard, which worked pretty well until the wind blew everything over (while the paint was still wet). At the same time I was dealing with this crisis, our washing machine was flooding our basement! So we were both running around like crazy trying to clean things up and prevent too much disaster.

I ended up moving everything inside and downstairs once the basement was dry. Now the small area at the foot of the stairs is draped with tarps and dropcloths, which Chuck loves. He says it's "totally E.T." He enjoys having to go through lots of plastic curtains in order to get into his band room, where he has been playing lots of guitar lately. By the way, we are playing a show tonight at the Ash Street. Here is a flyer:I still have a couple more batches of records to prime. In the meantime I have been working on plugging the spindle holes of the primed records, which is the last step before I actually start painting them. I have about 64 done so far, here's what they look like in the drying stage: